Man charged in shooting near UK pleaded guilty in 2020 shooting

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A man facing charges in a late-night shooting at a house party near the University of Kentucky’s campus was set to be sentenced next week in another shooting.

Jason Edwardo Almanza-Arroyo, 19, was indicted in 2020 on two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of wanton endangerment in connection with a shooting that happened when he was 16 years old, according to court records.

He was accused of being in a Chevy Tahoe that rammed another vehicle in the area of Boardwalk and Park Place on April 28, 2020, according to court records. The Tahoe sent the other vehicle into a light pole and then a tree before it landed in a ditch.

The people in the Tahoe had allegedly been exchanging fire with the people in the other vehicle before the crash, and they continued to fire at the other vehicle after the crash, according to court records.

“The next thing the victim and his friend remember was waking up trapped in the vehicle,” the criminal complaint in his 2020 case states. “Both victims received serious injuries as a result of the actions of (Almanza-Arroyo) and his adult co-defendants.”

Almanza-Arroyo pleaded guilty in August to the two counts of wanton endangerment and two amended counts of second-degree assault in the 2020 case, according to court records. He was set to be sentenced next Friday, Sept. 16, on those counts.

Almanza-Arroyo was released on a $15,000 full cash bond on his 2020 case, according to court records. He was arrested on separate charges of marijuana trafficking and receiving a stolen firearm in 2022, according to court records. In March, he was released on a $10,000 full cash bond in that case.

In the 2020 case, prosecutors had recommended five years imprisonment on each of the two assault charges and one year each on the two wanton endangerment charges, according to court records.